The global environmental crisis involves more than climate change. Coral reef ecologist Peter F. Sale has a very particular perspective on it – coral reefs are likely to disappear entirely from the planet by 2050. Sale will be on campus to discuss "Global Change, Tipping Points, and the Urgent Need to Act Solving Our Global Environmental Crisis" at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13 in Lumina Theatre.

Sale’s talk will explore what is happening to coral reefs and to our planet and why, focusing on the fact that we have the power to decide what kind of future we want. Making the needed changes to transition to a good future will take understanding and real commitment. Will we make the right decisions, and will we do so in time to perhaps save coral reefs?

Sale is currently the Assistant Director of the Institute for Water, Environment and Health at the United Nations University. He has a lengthy career researching the ecology of coral reefs in Hawaii, Australia, the Caribbean and places in between. He now lives with his wife Donna in the Muskoka region north of Toronto, while leading projects on coastal marine management in tropical regions around the world.

Sale’s talk is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Biology and Marine Biology, the Department of Environmental Studies and the Center for Marine Science. This event is free to the public and the campus community, but due to limited seating, RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Call Debbie Cronin at 910.962.3707, or CMS at 910.962.2301 for tickets.

Copies of Our Dying Planet will be on sale in the UNCW bookstore before the lecture and 30 minutes after the lecture.

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